We're often asked if we can repair AVI files. The answer is – YES, we can, but still Restore.Media doesn't support this specific format. Why? Because anyone can repair a corrupted AVI video in just a few minutes absolutely free of charge.
An AVI file uses less compression to store files and takes up more space than many other video formats—like MPEG and MOV. AVI files also can be created without the use of compression at all. This makes the files lossless, which results in immensely larger file sizes — approximately 2-3 GB per minute of video. For a Mac running Mountain Lion or later, converting AVI video to QuickTime is highly recommended. Elmedia Player: Universal Media Player. Flared with meeting user’s expectations, Elmedia Player is a renowned multi-media player amongst the users for playing high quality AVI files on Mac.
In this article we share details on how to repair AVI files with different 3rd-party free tools.
Please note that we’re not affiliated with these tools in any way and do not provide support for them. If you encounter any issues when using the tools, please contact their developers directly.
We also suggest that you create a backup of your files prior to using any video recovery software.
AVI files have quite a simple structure. You don't have to pay for repairing broken AVI files, just follow the instructions bellow:
First, you need to have all the necessary codecs installed. If you have them already, you can skip this step.
- For Windows users we advise to install the K-Lite Codec Pack. It's free, yet the most reliable codec pack we're aware of. It also comes with a great media player – Media Player Classic.
- For macOS users, we suggest to install the VLC media player. It's also free and comes with most common codecs you may need to play AVI files.
Note: do not install multiple different codec packs on the same computer as they may have conflicts and cause issues when playing media files.
Now that you have codecs installed, try to play the AVI file. If you still can't open the file, your media player reports some errors, or the video freezes at some point, then you may try one of the following options:
Note: we suggest that you create a backup copy of your corrupted AVI file, so that you can always get back to it and have the original source file in case anything goes wrong with the tools described below.
Option 1. Re-save Your Damaged AVI File with VirtualDub
VirtualDub is a free tool that allows you to do some basic editing of the AVI videos. What's important, it can identify a number of issues in an AVI file, including a broken index, and fix these issues automatically when you re-save the file with the tool. Unfortunately, though, VirtualDub is available only for Windows users, so if you're on a Mac, skip to the next option.
Here is how to repair AVI files with VirtualDub:
1. Download the tool from this page.
2. Unzip the downloaded archive and launch the tool by double-clicking on the VirtualDub.exe file.
3. In the appeared window click File -> Open video file… and then select your corrupted AVI file.
4. If you get the following error (or alike):
Couldn't locate decompressor for format 'H264' (unknown)
... then you need to install the ffdshow decoder, here is how:
4.1 Download ffdshow from this page.
4.2 Close your VirtualDub application. Then launch the downloaded ffdshow installation pack and follow the instructions. Make sure to select the VirtualDub application plugin like shown on the screen below:
4.3 Once the installation is completed, launch the VirtualDub tool again and then click File -> Open video file… to open your broken AVI video.
5. At this stage VirtualDub will display all the errors it can find in your AVI file:
6. Click Ok to close the warning window.
7. Click Video from the app menu and choose Direct stream copy. This makes sure your AVI video will be re-saved with the same compression settings as in your original file.
8. Click Audio and choose Direct stream copy. This is the same setting as the above, but for the audio stream.
9. Now, save your damaged AVI video to a new file. For this click File -> Save as AVI… from the app menu. In the appeared window select where you want to save the new file and give it a name. We recommend that you save it as a separate file, so that you have your original AVI video as a backup.
That's it! Your newly saved AVI file should play fine now. When saving the file, VirtualDub fixes most of the issues it can find.
However, if you still can't open the file, or the time slider doesn't work properly, you may try one of the options below.
Option 2. Repair AVI Files with DivFix++ (Available for Windows and macOS)
This is another free tool that can fix broken AVI files and is available for Windows and macOS users. This time we'll give a guide for Mac users, but the workflow on Windows is pretty much the same.
1. Download DivFix++ from this page and launch the tool.
2. Click Add Files and select your corrupted AVI file. If you have multiple damaged AVI files, you can add all of them at once.
3. At the bottom of the app there are two options that you should be aware of:
- Cut out bad parts. When selected, DivFix++ will remove corrupted parts of the video that can't be salvaged by the tool. This option is recommended, but keep in mind that the output file may miss some of the video chunks.
- Keep original file. When selected, VirtualDub will keep your original AVI file untouched, while the fixed video will be saved to a new file. We recommend to keep this option selected too.
4. Click Strip Index to clear existing indices from your AVI file as they may be damaged. Once finished, you should see a confirmation message in the log window:
5. Now, click on the Fix button to repair your corrupted AVI file. Depending on the video size, it may take up to several minutes to fix the file. Once finished, you will see a confirmation message in the log window:
Your new AVI file should work fine now.
In case you still can't play it, or if the time slider doesn't work, there is one more option:
Option 3. Fix Corrupted AVI Files with FFmpeg (Available for Windows and macOS)
This is the last option we'd like to cover in this article. FFmpeg is a powerful tool that can convert, record and stream audio and video files. With FFmpeg, you can completely rebuild the broken index of your corrupted AVI file. If the options described earlier didn't help, give this tool a try.
FFmpeg is available for Windows and macOS users. Since the workflow is slightly different, we'll provide separate guides for both versions.
Repair a Broken AVI Index with FFmpeg on Windows
1. Open your Windows File Explorer and go to C:UsersMy_Name, where My_Name – should be your own username. In this directory create a new folder and give it a name like RepairAVI. If you'll choose another name for the folder, we recommend writing it in English letters and without any spaces. The resulting destination of the folder should look the following way:
C:UsersMy_NameRepairAVI
2. Download the FFmpeg tool from this page.
3. Extract the downloaded archive and then find the 'bin' folder among extracted files. In the 'bin' directory there should be 3 files there:
4. Copy the ffmpeg.exe file and your corrupted AVI files to the folder you've created on step 1. In our example we need to copy these files to the following folder:
C:UsersMy_NameRepairAVI
5. Launch the Command Prompt. For this, go to the folder you created on step 1, remove path from the address bar, then type cmd and press Enter. This should look the following way:
6. Once the Command Prompt is launched, you should see the following window:
7. Now, copy-paste the following command in the Command Prompt and press Enter:
ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v copy -c:a copy output.avi
, where:
- input.avi – name of the corrupted file. You should replace it with the name of your corrupted AVI video.
- output.avi – name of the repaired AVI file. You can use any other name you want for your repaired AVI file.
- -c:v copy and -c:a copy – these arguments tell FFmpeg to copy the video and audio streams of the original AVI file to the repaired one.
In the Command Prompt this should look the following way:
Press Enter to run the command. Once finished, you should find the fixed AVI file in the same directory where your damaged file is located.
Repair a Broken AVI Index with FFmpeg on macOS
The easiest way to install FFmpeg on macOS is by using a package manager – Homebrew. Here is how to do this:
1. Open the Terminal app. For this press Command + Spacebar, type 'Terminal' in the appeared search field and then double-click on the Terminal app.
2. In the Terminal run the following command (just copy-paste it and then press enter). This will install the Homebrew app on your Mac:
/usr/bin/ruby -e '$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)'
Note: after running this command you may get the following message:
Press RETURN to continue or any other key to abort
Just press Enter to start the installation, which may take a few minutes. Once installed, you will get a confirmation message:
3. Now, run the following command to install FFmpeg (just copy-paste it into the Terminal and then press Enter):
brew install ffmpeg
4. The installation may take a few minutes. Once completed, the terminal will look this way:
5. Specify the directory with your broken AVI file. For this run the following command in the Terminal:
cd Downloads
In this example, our damaged AVI video is located in the Downloads folder. You may specify any other directory where your broken AVI file is stored.
6. Now, you can try to repair your corrupted AVI file with the FFmpeg tool by running the following command:
ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v copy -c:a copy output.avi
, where:
input.avi – name of the corrupted file. You should replace it with the name of your corrupted AVI video.
output.avi – name of the repaired AVI file. You can use any other name you want for your repaired AVI file.
-c:v copy and -c:a copy – these arguments tell FFmpeg to copy the video and audio streams of the original AVI file to the repaired one.
In the Terminal this should look the following way:
Press Enter to run the command. Once finished, you should find the repaired AVI file in the same directory where the damaged file is located.
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We hope these great tools will help you repair AVI files without any hassles. Still, if you have any questions or need help, please feel free to drop us a line.
Happy recovering!
We'll show you how to download codec and Perian to make QuickTime play AVI on Mac, how to play AVI file on Mac with an alternative player, and how to convert AVI to Mac playable format.
I've exported some video at University in uncompressed Microsoft AVI and it doesn't play in quicktime or vlc at home on my MacBook.
My MacBook Pro won't play AVI videos. When I try to watch it, it just shows a white screen with garbled video. Anybody know what the problem is?
Why QuickTime and VLC won't play AVI on Mac? There're two main reasons. One is that the AVI uses a codec format that QuickTime/VLC can't support, the other is that your AVI file is corrupted. In this article we'll show you how to play AVI on Mac smoothly.
Table of Contents
Solution 1. Convert AVI Video to Mac Supported Formats
When Mac QuickTime can't play AVI files, you can convert AVI format to Mac supported formats, such as MOV, M4V or MP4.
MacX Video Converter Pro has proven to be great in the realm of video conversion. The software enables you to watch AVI on Mac with no formats limits by converting AVI to QuickTime supported formats like MP4, with ZERO quality loss and super faster speed.
It is fully compatible with macOS Big Sur, Catalina, and other Mac systems. Just free download it to have a try!
How to Convert AVI Files for Smooth Playback on Mac
To begin with, free download the AVI video converter on your MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, Mac mini, or Mac Pro. Install and run it.
Step 1: Click '+ Video' button to load the AVI file you want to convert for playback on Mac.
Step 2: Select an Mac compatible output format. On the Output Profile panel, you can scroll down to 'Mac General Video' and choose 'MP4 Video (H264)', 'MP4 Video (MPEG4)', 'MOV Video (H264)', or any profile you like. And, hit 'Done'.
Besides H.264 and MPEG4 video codec, it also supports converting AVI video to HEVC/H.265 codec which can release more space for your Mac's hard drive. All Macs on High Sierra and later support HEVC playback.
Step 3: Click 'Browse' button to choose a destination folder to save converted AVI files.
Step 4: Click 'RUN' button to start converting AVI file for Mac. Hardware acceleration is by default enabled to boost video conversion speed.
Besides converting AVI to Mac, MacX Video Converter Pro has many other features you'll love.
- The program is able to convert among video files, like AVI to MP4, MKV to MOV, M2TS to AVI, to name just a few.
- It allows reducing video file size by lowering resolution, bit rate, etc.
- It provides some basic editing features, like cut, crop, and merge.
- It can record screen and video.
- It allows you to download video and music from YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Metacafe, Facebook, and more 1000+ sites.
Solution 2. Watch AVI File on Mac with 3rd-party Player
When QuickTime won't play AVI on Mac, you still have many other AVI players for Mac to choose from, such as 5KPlayer. 5KPlayer works like a charm, without requiring to install codec pack.
5KPlayer is a 100% free and clean media player, enabling you to play SD HD 4K UHD AVI video on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, etc. It supports AVI files with codecs DivX, Xvid or 3ivX etc. It delivers surprisingly great audio and image quality. With frequent update, it fully supports macOS Big Sur, Catalina, High Sierra, and earlier OS.
Now free download 5KPlayer so that you can play AVI on Mac without converting.
In fact, 5KPlayer can also play 720p/1080p/4K UHD/8K videos in MKV, M2TS, FLV, MOV, MP4, AVCHD and more, music audio in MP3, AAC, AC3, DVDs, and many more on Mac and Windows (including Win 10). Additionally, it can download video and music from YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, Vevo, over 300 sites for free.
How to Use 5KPlayer to Play AVI Video on Mac
Step 1. Download and install 5KPlayer. Once done, open it.
Step 2. Load target AVI file to play. There're 3 ways to do so.
- Click 'Video' to browse and open the source AVI file on the main interface;
- Drag and drop AVI video to the main window;
- Right click AVI file, choose to open with 5KPlayer.
Solution 3. Install the Right Codec to Make QuickTime Play AVI on Mac
That QuickTime fails to play your AVI files may be because it doesn't support the AVI' codec. AVI is a container format. It can package various codecs, such as Xvid, DivX and 3ivX. So you need to know how the AVI file is coded and download the right codec for QuickTime to decode it on Mac.
To figure out the codec used to encode AVI, you can open the file with QuickTime and choose Show Movie Info from the Window menu. Then you should be able to find codec information after format properties. Next, you should check if the codec is supported by QuickTime or not. If it is an unsupportive codec, you can download the codec online.
The most popular codecs that can be installed to play AVI on Mac are:
Both add support for a variety of DivX and other formats which often carry the .avi extension. You can download and install either one codec. Once done, open QuickTime and see if it can play your AVI file on Mac now.
But this method isn't foolproof. Some users report that after installing DivX for Mac, the sound in some AVIs will sometimes be either missing or distorted.
Solution 4. Install Perian to Help QuickTime Play AVI on Mac
If you don't want to download codec but still want to use QuickTime to play AVI video, you can install Perian. This is a free and open-source QuickTime component which can bring necessary codecs or components to help QuickTime play AVI, MKV, FLV, MTS, DivX, WMA and more on Mac. Certainly even if Perian is installed, QuickTime won't play all media types.
Avi Format Movie Download
How to Use Perian to Play AVI on Mac
Avi Format Converter
Step 1. Download and install Perian from https://perian.org/. once done, it will be listed inside System Preferences.
Step 2. Right click on the AVI file and then choose QuickTime to open it.
So, above are all the ways to play AVI file on Mac. You'll surely find a workable way.